Heartbeat!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and got to hear the heartbeat of our baby for the first time! We saw it on the ultrasound before, but didn't hear it, but this time I was able to listen to the "woosh woosh woosh woosh". The heart rate was about 135 beats per minute, which is normal (I guess it's usually between 120-160 bpm). It was very cool to hear -- I hope that we get to hear it again at the next appointment so that Jon can hear it too.

Everything else went well at the check-up. I haven't gained any weight since my last appointment, which the doctor said was good, though I feel like I'm an ever-expanding balloon. :) I have some lab tests that I'm supposed to go and have done in two weeks as well -- a screening for the baby and a glucose test for mommy.

The bean is 14 weeks this week and is the length of a lemon (hopefully with a sweeter disposition). I love how they compare the baby to food, it makes it easy to understand and pretty cute. Here's what's going on this week:

How your baby's growing: Head to bottom, your baby's 3 1/2 inches long — about the length of a lemon — and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. Her body's growing faster than her head, which now sits upon a more well-defined neck. By the end of this week, her arms will have lengthened and will be in proportion to the rest of her body. (Her legs still have some growing to do, though.) She's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair all over her body (called lanugo). Her liver starts secreting bile this week, a sign that it's already functioning properly, and her spleen starts contributing to the production of red blood cells. She's also producing and discharging urine into the amniotic fluid, a normal process that she'll keep up until birth. You still can't feel your baby's movements, but her hands and feet (which are now half an inch long) are more flexible and active. Thanks to brain impulses, her little facial muscles are getting a workout as she squints, frowns, and grimaces. She can grasp now, too, and she may be able to suck her thumb.

If the baby's anything like mommy was when she was little he/she is already sucking their thumb and probably has a blankie to hold on to in there (Woof-woof Junior?).